Internet Shames College Girl Who Might Lose Limbs After Passing Out on a Minnesota Porch

Go home Internet, you're horrid.

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Sad news broke earlier this week of a college student in Minnesota who may lose her limbs after spending the night on a porch in sub-zero temperatures. If there's one thing you can count on with a story like this, it's for anonymous Internet commenters to indulge in some nasty victim-shaming. Get ready to be annoyed at just how awful people are.

Nineteen-year-old Alyssa Jo Lommel returned home from a party just after midnight last Friday night. Friends dropped her off outside her house, later describing her as "a normal party chick" who "wasn't wasted... wasn't falling down drunk." (A Twitter message posted to Lommel's account earler that night, which has since been deleted, refers to her downing a "tenth shot of tequila, yum yum.") Lommel's friends did not wait to see her inside, however, and she never made it. A roommate inside did not report hearing Lommel knock — instead police believe she went to the house next door. Following her footprints in the snow, her route has been traced to the next door house's garage (where she is believed to have sheltered for a time), then around a locked car in the driveway before pacing up and down a dead end street. She was then found the next morning, after over 9 hours outside, passed out on the porch of that house next to hers.

Temperatures in Duluth went as low as 17 degrees below zero — Lommel in only a sweater, jeans and Ugg boots. The couple who found her on Saturday morning described her as unresponsive, suffering from severe hypothermia and with hands "swollen to three times their normal size." She's currently in a stable but critical condition in hospital as doctors work to restart blood flow and heal frozen tissue; the Lommel family are posting updates on a CaringBridge profile. They also released a statement thanking the couple who found her, which read, "We owe Alyssa's life to you two. Our family cannot be grateful enough that you happened to see her. She could not have survived much longer out in the elements. You two will forever be in our hearts and prayers and we cannot thank you enough for what you did."

Many digital news outlets picked up Lommel's story, including Gawker, The Daily Mail, The Huffington Post (where the article came with a "Too Much To Drink?" slideshow of other cases) and BroBible, as well as Minnesotan papers. "Drunk college girl mishap" headlines are often too hard to pass up, you see. And while some folks offered support and good wishes, many others just couldn't help but get judgemental — shaming both Lommel and the friends who drove off without checking she'd got inside: